Greg Chaisson thinks Kings of Dust’s upcoming debut album is very reminiscent musically to Badlands

Greg Chaisson thinks Kings of Dust’s upcoming debut album is very reminiscent musically to Badlands

Former Badlands and current Kings of Dust bassist Greg Chaisson was recently interviewed by the Full In Bloom Podcast to promote Kings of Dust‘s upcoming debut album.

Chaisson stated as follows about Kings of Dust: “… I’ve had the band for awhile. I actually had the band when I went out on the road with (Jake E. Lee’s) Red Dragon Cartel in 2014. But when I got sick and when I was doing all my cancer treatment and all that stuff, I just put it on hiatus. I really didn’t have the energy until probably last summer and by then we had changed drummers and guitar players. So, it’s me and the singer is Michael Beck, who was part of the Red Dragon Cartel cavalcade of singers when they went out in 2015, when they had singers that would do like two or three weeks with them. He was one of those guys…one of my best friends here in Phoenix. We write well together. So, it’s me and him…I have a drummer named Jimi Taft, excellent drummer. I always tell people, had Jake and I decided to do another band or another version of Badlands back when the band broke up, because we were talking about getting a new drummer and a new singer, Jimi would have been the guy, really great, versatile drummer.

Then I got a young guy, a 26 year old guy plays guitar with us. His name is Michael Arms and he’s a really good guitar player.  He’s a young guy but he’s got kind of an old soul. He has his finger on the pulse of a lot of ’70s music where a lot of my inspiration comes from when I’m writing. So, I’m pretty excited about it. They’re actually doing guitars this week. Bass and drums are done. They’ve been doing guitars all week and I think they’ll probably go until the middle of next week. Then I think they’ll start vocals or maybe solos, I don’t know what the plan is.  I don’t go in to hear what they’re doing until they have enough stuff down for me to go yea or nay.”

Of note, Kings of Dust have since announced that they have parted ways with Arms.

In terms of when Kings of Dust‘s debut album will be released, Chaisson opined: “Worse case scenario, early summer. The singer owns the studio so we have the luxury of unlimited studio time. That’s his full-time job, the studio, he’s always recording…and he also kind of works at one of the few studios in Nebraska. So, because he owns it, we took six days to do basic tracks. A lot of people go in and they only have two or three days.  We’ve had no budget as far as the recording. So, I think late spring / early summer. I’ve had a number of smaller labels approach me about it but I haven’t even had a conversation with them. They’ve just sent me messages about it saying, ‘hey, we heard what you posted online.’ So, everyone seems to be pretty favorable. So, I’m looking forward to doing it.”

With respect to what Kings of Dust sounds like, Chaisson opined: “It’s very reminiscent, musically, of Badlands. That’s one of the things about Jake and I is I like the way that he writes. I kind of always wrote that way, too. So when we were doing Badlands I thought, ‘well, if I’m ever going to do something on my own I would probably stay on this kind of course.’ It’s not exactly like it but it’s got a lot of the same flavors that Badlands had. No one could replace Ray (Gillan), and Michael doesn’t sound anything like Ray, and I didn’t want anyone who sounded like Ray. In my mind, I haven’t heard anyone who does it right.  I’ve heard a lot of guys who could hit the notes but it doesn’t sound like Ray. Ray had a certain tonality to his voice that I’ve never heard that many people do. The guy who sings with Jake now, Darren James Smith, I think he does a good job on the Badlands material. He doesn’t sound like Ray but he has a certain Ray-like quality that I really like. I mean, Oni Logan could get a little of that going on and Robert Mason does a good job with it. If I was going to say, ‘hey Jake, let’s put Badlands back together and get one of these guys,’ that would make sense. But for what I’m doing, I don’t want to have too close of a comparison to what Badlands did, other than the fact that I happen to write the same kind of music that Jake does. But I don’t want a Jake E. Lee clone, and I don’t even know if there is one. I don’t want a Ray Gillan clone. So, I wanted it to have its own qualities as well.  I think I’ve achieved that, I’m pretty happy with it.”

You can read other excerpts from the interview with Greg Chaisson at Full In Bloom‘s website or listen to the interview below:

Badlands Bassist Greg Chaisson Interview – Jake E. Lee – full in bloom Podcast by fullinbloom

The full in bloom interview with bassist Greg Chaisson (Badlands, Steeler, Legs Diamond, Surgical Steel). Greg talks about his band, Kings of Dust, recording the first Badlands album, Jake E. Lee, Ray Gillen, Eric Singer, Steeler, Ron Keel, Surgical Steel and more.

Kings of Dust‘s “Keep The Spirit Alive” song:

Kings of Dust – “Keep the Spirit Alive”

Kings of Dust on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Kings-of-Dust-367376990123633/